Image credit: WHL

By Earl Seitz

WHL season

January start to WHL season will mean a shorter schedule

Oct 15, 2020 | 3:01 PM

KAMLOOPS — Yesterday the Western Hockey League announced a third delay to the start of the season — pushing it back another five weeks, to Friday, January 8.

As it’s been with the other delays, it buys much needed time to make sure the season goes ahead in a manner that’s as safe as possible for players and fans.

Safety has become an even larger issue when looking at what’s happened in the Quebec Major Junior League, which started it’s season October 2.

Less than two weeks in the Quebec League has had to delay the season by at least two weeks in two of it’s three divisions, affecting 12 teams.

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Two teams have had a combined more two dozen positive COVID tests, and at least six of the teams in the affected divisions have been shutdown by government restrictions in a so called red zone.

“We are certainly learning from how they are addressing the different situations in their league.” says WHL Commissioner Ron Robison.

Ron Robison says with the new start date and end date to the regular season, there won’t be the regular 68 game schedule.

“We have a start date of January 8th and a concluding date of May 2nd, so that will allow us to play a maximum of 50 games.”

With the new start and end dates teams will only play within their divisions.

So it will be Kamloops, Kelowna, Prince George, Vancouver and Victoria only playing against each other — in what we’ll call a B.C. cohort.

Here’s the problem as it stands today —– ViaSport B.C. is allowing teams to only play in a maximum four team cohort.

That could mean cohorts of two and three teams and then two weeks down to change cohorts.

“In the event that that cohort position is still in place in B.C., then we will have to adapt to that.” says the Commissioner. “That will dictate to some extend what our schedule will look like.”

Ron Robison says no matter what size and shape the season takes, there are going to be significant financial losses for all clubs — dealing with a shorter season and limited capacity far lower than what the teams are used to.

Therein lies another issue in B.C. —- right now arena capacity is limited to 50 people —– take 20 players on each team, a couple of coaches, a trainer or athletic therapist for each team, three officials, a and timekeepers, and you’ve got your 50.

“Based on our discussions with health authorites in all locations we’ll get their full co-operation.” says Robison. “Whether we’ll have spectators at the end of the day, I’m not sure.”

Along with having players, a revenue stream is the lifeblood of a franchise.

With no spectators, that lifeblood for the teams like the Kamloops Blazers, would all but dry up.

“Yah, it’s going to be a huge financial impact for the Kamloops Blazers, just like it is for a lot of the other teams in the Western Hockey League.” says Blazers President Don Moores. “I give Tom Gaglardi and all of the other owners full credit for saying we need to put a season on — it’s important for our players and there will be substantial losses if we’re not allowed fans. That will be a lot of pain, but there still is that committment.”

Commissioner Ron Robison says pay to play is not an option for the Western League.

With another five week delay before the start of the season, with that now more than two and a half months away, has the league considered the option of giving players a release so they can play junior A or in other leagues until the Western League season begins?

“No we haven’t at this stage.” says Commissioner Robison. “They seem to be doing well in their locations right now. We’ve said from a point of view of their own health, safety and education, we think it’s important for them to remain at home during this period of time.”